Presidential Candidate John Edwards Healthcare Plan Would Require Doctor Visits

Presidential Candidate John Edwards solution to the growing health insurance crisis in America is to make sure all American's have health coverage. His official website provides more information regarding Edwards health care goals. I believe that all American's should have access to health care, but I disagree with many of the ways that Presidential Candidate John Edwards wants accomplish this goal.

Presidential Candidate John Edwards proposes shared responsibility for making sure all American's have health insurance coverage. Edwards proposal would require that businesses and other employers cover their employees or help pay the costs for their insurance. Many businesses want to provide health insurance for their employees but they simply cannot afford it! Or, businesses may offer health insurance and their employees cannot afford it!

Edwards proposes expanding federal programs, including Medicaid, reforming insurance laws, and making health insurance coverage "available" to poor families in America. Medicaid is already an option for many poor families. Wealthier families typically have health insurance. This leaves many middle class, and low wage earning, working Americans as the main population that is at risk of not having health insurance.

While in Iowa, it's been reported that when asked about his comprehensive health care program, Presidential Candidate John Edwards replied, "It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care. If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."

What? Did John Edwards just say that he thought that doctor visits should be required? How can possibly FORCE someone to go to the doctor? What do you do with the person who WON'T go? What do we do if they get sick years later-tell them, "too bad you didn't go to the doctor?"

If we, and Presidential Candidate John Edwards, start down this slippery slope by requiring doctor visits, where does it end?